BULGARIA, FARM LAND WITHOUT A FARMHOUSE
Drawn by James M. Darley
BULGARIA IS A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY RULED BY A TSAR
Almost as large and as thickly populated as Ohio, Bulgaria combines a constitution and a
parliament with a hereditary dynasty. The Sobranye, or National Assembly, may be dissolved
by the Tsar, who must profess the Orthodox faith.
Russo-Bulgarian victory over the Turk in
1877. Although the original Bulgarians
were blood brothers of the Turks and Mag
yars, the nation is Slav to-day.
In Sofia the finest monument is not to a
Bulgarian, but to a Russian, Alexander the
Liberator (see Color Plate II). The Rus
sian church at Shipka and the great Alex
ander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia were
exchange gifts of gratitude. During Ger
manophile days the cathedral's name was
altered to that of the alphabet saints, Cyril
and Methodius, whose portraits are so
prominent among the paintings on its
walls; but Slavic unity was so proved dur
ing the ousting of the Turk in 1877-8
that Alexander's statue was unmolested
during the recent war and the cathedral
erected in his honor again bears his name.
GABROVO IS THE TEXTILE CENTER OF THE
NATION
"Shipka" is a magic word in Slavic unity,
for Bulgarian and Russian fought shoulder
to shoulder in the famous pass. Vereshch
agin long foreshadowed the irony of the
phrase "All Quiet on the Western Front"
in his famous painting,
"All Quiet at
Shipka" (see, also, Color Plate XI).
North of the historic pass, down a mag
nificent mountain road repaired by the
trudovaks, we came to Gabrovo, a shoe
string town on both banks of a mountain
stream, but known as "the Manchester
of Bulgaria."
When every Balkan pocket
was outlined with scrolls of black braid,
Gabrovo made that, and its woolens have
long been celebrated.
Modern mills and buildings are sand
wiched in among the picturesque old houses
overhanging the Yantra, but the bucolic
spirit of springtime remains. Almost every
bright-eyed mill operative wore a sprig of
lily of the valley, which they call "Maiden's
Tears."
The people of Gabrovo have a reputation
for thrift so calculating that legend says
they cut off the tails of their cats, so that
in passing through the door in winter they
won't let in so much cold!
Behind the woolen mills of Gabrovo are
millions of sheep, for Bulgaria has two
197